Tuesday, June 12, 2018

By the Gods!

Mathos (Jacques Sernas) is confronted by guards in SALAMMBO (1960 ; also known as The Loves of Salammbo)

The guards in this film are probably the least effective guards in any PEPLUM movie, and that's saying something. It always irks me that the guards were so often ineffective in these stories. This actually makes the hero look not heroic since the guards are so incompetent. The guards' costumes were often reused in other films. Sernas, who's a natural blond, got his hair coloured dark, along with his skin. and it's not really convincing. Since he wears next to nothing in the entire film, his appearance becomes a liability of sorts, even if, physically speaking, he's very fit and he's up to the challenge and goes through the many actions scenes with some exuberance. I like him and in this movie he's effective in many scenes but he's also over-the-top and overacts shamelessly in many other scenes. An entertaining film that's very uneven.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually Jacques Sernas had brown hair which was lightened for some of his roles. I have much higher regard for Salammbo than you do. I think it's an excellent film in every respect.

PEPLUM TV said...

I actually like it a lot. There are some brilliant scenes in it and some cringe worthy scenes as well. This was one of the first Fan Dubs I've made (since the only US print is terrible) so I doubt I would have made a Fan Dub of a movie I didn't like. I admit it's wildly uneven though.